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John Donovan

I’m jumping the gun a bit on this blog post, but Renesas and Bug Labs have just introduced (though not yet promoted) the RL78 Intelligent Cloud Connectivity Kit, consisting of an RL78G14 RDK and Bug Labs’ BUGswarm Internet connectivity software. The kit is free to current or potential Arrow Electronics customers via their web site.

BUGswarm enables you to acquire data from and control embedded devices using Javascript or HTTP. Bug Labs defines a “swarm” as large group of devices that produce or consume data with other devices in the swarm. Any device that can communicate through HTTP can be configured to join a swarm. You can control the level of access each resource has to a swarm, and by invitation you can share resources with devices in other swarms. In addition to offering an extensive set of APIs and a lot of source code, Bug Labs also provides tools for configuration, participation, and API key management.

To get a quick view of how this works, go to http://buglabs.github.com/bugswarm-renesas/. Select YRDKRL78G13 and click Go. In the second selection box select Simulator01 and again select Go.

Bug Labs claims you can get up and running within just a few minutes of opening the box. They weren’t kidding. I was monitoring my RL78G14 RDK over the Internet within five minutes of powering it up. The user interface was nice and clean and required only two mouse clicks to get it going—the ones you just did above.

Flashback

If you receive the Connectivity Kit from Arrow you can skip this section; but if you already have an RL78G14 RDK read on—you’ll need to re-flash the processor with one of the MOT files that you can download from the Bug Labs web site. Yes, you can compile the source code and download the resulting binary to the RL78, but let’s get started the quick way. I’m assuming you’ve already installed the Virtual COM Port driver for the RDK; if not you’ll need to do that before proceeding.

  1. First download the files from https://github.com/buglabs/bugswarm-renesas. Click on the ZIP button to download what you need.
  2. Move the zip file to a convenient location and unzip it.
  3. Locate SW5 on the RDK and turn Switch 2 off (others on).
  4. Connect the RDK to your PC via the USB cable.
  5. Start Renesas Flash Programmer V2. The defaults shown will be Create new workspace and Basic mode. Click Next.
  6. Select RL78 from the Microcontroller dropdown. Then select the R5F104PJ MCU from the Device Name Column. Finally, enter YRDKRL78G14 as the workspace and project name, then click Next.
  7. From the Tool dropdown choose the last COM port listing, then click Next for this and the next two screens (Power Supply and Project Settings).
  8. From the Microcontroller menu choose Erase, then click Start. If all goes well all steps should indicate PASS.
  9. Next select Program from the Microcontroller menu. Then Browse for one of the MOT files that you downloaded earlier; select it; and click on Start. When the green PASS bar appears, you’re done. Click to exit the program.
  10. Move S2 back to the ON position and the board reboots.

Going Online

For this section I’ll assume you either have the pre-flashed Arrow board or you just re-flashed your old one. In either case if you’ve used the Exosite software before these directions will be familiar since you’re once again programming the onboard GainSpan Wi-Fi module.

  1. First you need to provision your board to be a Wi-Fi access point. Press S2 and hold it down while you press the Reset button; only release S2 after you’ve released the Reset button.
  2. Next click on the Network link on the taskbar of your PC and connect to the RDK.

  1. Use your web browser to go to the URL indicated on the RDK’s LCD screen.
  2. Click on Select an Existing Network; select your local Wi-Fi network; enter the password; click Next; then click Save and Apply.
  3. Finally, press the Reset button on the RDK. After several seconds the LCD should indicate that your board is connected to your Wi-Fi network.

Now for the fun part:

  1. Navigate to buglabs.github.com/bugswarm-renesas/. In the first dropdown box, select the YRDKRL78G14 board and click "Go!".
  2. In the second dropdown box click on the ID from the LCD screen (the MAC address of your GainSpan Wi-Fi module) and again click on Go. You’ll now see live data reported from your RDK.

In future posts we’ll work with the BUGswarm code to explore just what you can do with the Cloud Connectivity Kit. Having looked ahead at the APIs and some of the tools—and being familiar with the considerable capabilities of the RL78G14—I’d say quite a lot.